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Microwave mediated rapid synthesis of chitosan

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Abstract

Chitosan is synthesized by deacetylating chitin with NaOH solution under microwave irradiation. The process describes a rapid synthesis procedure in comparison to conventional methods. The microwave-synthesized chitosan was characterized by Ninhydrin test, Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction measurements. The experimental results show that the degree of deacetylation increased with increasing irradiation time. A degree of deacetylation of 85.3% was achieved after irradiating chitin with 45% NaOH solution in a microwave for 5.5 min at 900-watt power. This method can be very useful for synthesizing low molecular weight chitosan with rapid and clean chemistry.

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Acknowledgement

This work was financially supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India project (BT/PR6759/BRB/10/446/2005). A. Sahu thanks MHRD, Govt of India and IITG for the financial support in the form of fellowship. We thank the reviewers for their constructive criticism and critical inputs.

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  1. Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India

    Abhishek Sahu, Pranab Goswami & Utpal Bora

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  1. Abhishek Sahu
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  2. Pranab Goswami
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  3. Utpal Bora
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Correspondence to Utpal Bora.

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Sahu, A., Goswami, P. & Bora, U. Microwave mediated rapid synthesis of chitosan. J Mater Sci: Mater Med 20, 171–175 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-008-3549-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-008-3549-4

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